Shuttle structure for wire cloth looms and method of handling weft wire



Dec. 6, 1932.- H. L. THOMPSQN 1,890,008

SHUTTLE STRUCTURE FOR WIRE CLOTH LOOMS AND METHOD OF HANDLING WEFT WIRE Original Filed May 21, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 6, 1932. H- THOMPSON 1,890,008

SHUTTLE STRUCTURE FOR WIRE CLOTH LOOMS AND METHOD OF HANDLING WEF'T WIRE Original Filed May 21, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 6, 1932 eens warren STATES r'rsur OFFICE HERBERT L. THOMPSON, OF ELGIN, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO REYNOLDS WTRE (30., 3155916, ILLENO'IS, A CORPQRATION SHUTTLE STRUCTURE FOR WIBIE CLOTH LOOMS AND WEFT METHOD OF HANDLING Application filed Iiay 21, 1930, Serial No. 454,317. Renewed May 2, 1932.

v-le novel form of shuttle in which the coil or" wire may be carried, and whereby the wire is fed through suitable tensioning means, ano which shuttle is provided with suitable w 1-" 'l-up means.

It is a. further purpose to provide a method and apparatus whereby bobbins may be eliminated and weft wire supplied from the interior of coil and suitably tensioined.

ll ith these nd other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, ar-

n: ent and combination of the various of my shut le structure for wire cloth nethod of handling weft wire, "by the objects contemplated are atd, hereinafter more fully set forth, ed ut in ny claims, and illustrated in drawings, in which: plan view of a section of wire course of construction, illustrating position of my shuttle in its passage beveen the upper and lower strands of warp is inverted plan View of the o' ind is to lay the weft wires in position beuveen those of the warp, and the less mechanism that is employed for the purpose the better. It is also highly desirable to create the device 1n amannerto allow its operation continuously for the greatest pos sible time. This necessitates the adoption of a vessel of larger capacity than the present bobbin, and presumes the elimination of some of its faults. As the wire itself is the only essential to the forming of the weft, it has been proposed to dispose of the bobbin as excess weight and a source of trouble and to attempt to feed the weft directly from an open coil of wire which is carried to an annular chamber in the shuttle itself.

As the diliiculties met with in the use of the bobbin are chiefly caused by its motion relative to the shuttle, that is, its rotation and these difficulties would be enormously increased by the greater mass of a much larger coil of wire, in the present device I feed wire from a coil which has no motion relative to the shuttle and no rotation at all. In other words, I have found that it is quite possible to lay the weft wire at a reasonably constant tension without many of the appurtenances that are used at present. No change is made in the shuttle except its enlargement to receive th coil, and a somewhat different arrangement for the draw-back which will still function though applied in this case directly to the Wire instead of to the bobbin.

I have found by experiment that an open circular coil of wire resting free in a shallow container the walls of which embrace the coil at its periphery rather closely, while a flat cover confines it above, will permit the delivery of this wire Without tangling and at a very uniform tension vby drawing it over annular barriers and through a hole at the center of the vessel. The barriers consist of two hollow roughly cylindrical rings, concentric with the coil, the vessel and each other, the large one pendent from the cover of the vessel for about four fifths of the thickness of the coil and very loosely embracing a smaller one which protrudes from the bottom of the vessel for a like distance, the central opening of which,.forms the final passage for the wire from the vessel.

These barriers serve to prevent loose convolutions of the wire from approaching the central orifice where they might tangle with the outgoing wire; They also serve as a means of securing the desired tension as the wire pays out, as each unit of the wire must travel exactly the same helical spiral course over the barriers, and thus, will be subject to the same frictional retardation. In ad iusting the tension to suit any size of wire the size of the barriers and the distance between them will be determiningfactors.

I will now describe my improved shuttle.

in the drawings, the shuttle bars are indicated at andthe shuttle at 16. Secured to the shuttle is a shallow, annular container A having the annular wall 17 and the bottom 18. At its center, the bottom is formed with an open, upwardly extending tubular member 19. Pressed into the member 19 is a thicker member or sleeve 20,'which supports the vertically spaced bearing members 7 or ings 21 and 22.

I provide a sheave 13 having the ordinary annular peripheral groove 23. The sheave B has a central upstandingspindle 24. This spindle is ournaled in the bearing rings 21 and 22 to oscillate perhaps be mentioned that the sheave B serves a double function, first that. of affording frictional tension on the wire, and second it serves as a wind-back device.

Between the spindle 24 and the sleeve is a convolute clock spring 25. One end of the spring is fastened as at 26 (Figure 6) to the sleeve 20 and the other end is fastened as by a tang 27 to the spindle 24.

The sleeve. 20 has a bore 28 extending through it, which is bell-shaped as at 28a at its lower end, and is somewhat flared at its upper end as at 28?),the flare being rounding for furnishing an appropriate surface over which the wire may slide.

The upper end of the spindle 24 is externally threaded as at 29 to receive a nut 30, which has a rounded outer contour as shown to permit the proper smooth travel of the wire.

The container 18 is provided with a top 32 hinged to it as at 33 and having aspring clip fastening means 34at its central portion. lhe top 32 has a'downwardly tapered tubular member 36 formed at its lower end with an Lip-turned tubular member 38. For convenience, I call the members 36 and 38 the outer barrier, and the upper end of the sleeve 20 and the nut'30 the inner barrier.

The under part of the sheave B has a notch 39, as shown in Figure 4. so that a wire may -be drawn through the spindle 24 and thence through the notch into the groove 23 of the sheave B. Suitably supported as by means of a bracket 40 on the underside of the container 18 ar interlocking sheaves 41 and 42 which 7 serve to guide the wire when it is fed in either direction.

therein with limited rotary motion as hereinafter explained. It should under tension. Projecting downwardly from the underside of the container 18 toward the sheave B is a stop button 43 shown in dotted lines in Figure 2. A corresponding stop button 44 projects upwardly from the sheave. These two buttons engage and prevent the unwinding of the spring.

The coiled wire 45 fits snugly in the container. The wire is threaded from'the inside of the coil around the outer barrier as shown inFigure 4, thence around the inner barrier, and from the top downwardly through the bore 28 of the spindle 24, then through the .notch 39, and around the sheave B in the groove 23, and thence between the guide sheaves 41 and 42.

It will be understood that the parts are so arranged and the springs so'tensioned that normally the parts stand in the position shown in Figure 2, where the wire is threaded almost the entire circumference of the sheave B.

Of course, it will be understood that the end of the wire 45 is fastened to the end of other shuttle bar 15 and finishes the stroke on the other shuttle bar. The mechanism for accomplishing this is old and has already been referred to. It should perhaps be said that when either shuttle bar moves past the pin 13 on its outward stroke, and then starts again on its inward stroke, the spring 25 will wind up when the wire slackens and the parts will assume the position shown in Figure 2, but after the shuttle passes the pin 13, then the drag on the wire will tension the spring and tend to move the sheave B toward the position shown in Figure 3. I

An open coil shuttle of this kind has a number of marked advantages. 7

It is, ofcourse, obvious that it entirely eliminates the bobbin. It can carry fifteen times as much wireas the ordinary bobbin without becoming too heavy. Since bobbin supervision constitutes the bulk of loom attendance, it follows that the cost of this attendance is reduced. in proportion to the saving of time Furthermore theaimount of stoppage of the loom to make bobbin changes is greatly lessened, and this results in a great production saving.

.The winding of one coil will take the place I of the winding of about fifteen bobbins, and

thus effect a substantial saving in labor. The investment in bobbins is eliminated. There will be some saving in factory space.

But the more important advantages of my improved coil arise from the improvement in the product that results from its use.

lVhere my shuttle is used, there is change in wire only one-fifteenth as often as where bobbins are used, and it follows that the frequent chan es in the appearance of the cloth will be eliminated. The variations in width and in uniformity of selvage will be almost wholly done away with. Each coil being kept adjacent to the coil following or before which it was wound, should show no marked difference in the appearance or characteristics of the wire when it appears in the cloth.

Variations in width will be eliminated be cause therewill not be the variation in ten sion that inevitably occurs with the use of small bobbins. With small bobbins the tension differences limit the amount of wire that can be placed upon one bobbin and tension differences also limit the speed at which the bobbins may be operated. These limitations do not occur where the open coil shuttle is employed, and therefore the operations can be substantially speeded up without interfering with the even tension of the weft wire.

W'here this open coil shuttle is used, there will be no force set up in the wire to either coil or uncoil it, and it will never overrun and cause slack. There will be no perceptible change in the tension as the coil is diminished in size, because the last convolutions of wire pass over the barriers under practically the same conditions as the first ones.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that I have provided a shuttle which eliminates the use of bobbins, thus effecting a very great saving in the expense of bobbins, expense of winding them, expense of changing bobbins, and at the same time, I provide a means whereby a more uniform product can be secu; d in the manner already described.

r urthermore with the open coil shuttle, the

orlr of the looms can be ve y substantially speeded up without in anyway interfering u h the appearance of the product.

Some changes may be made in the details of the construction of my improved shuttle without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my in tention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents, which may be resonably included within their scope. 7

It will be observed that I have provided a method of drawing wire from the inside of a coil around suitable tension imposing barriers and through a suitable wind-up device, and this also I desire to cover by my claims.

I claim as my invention:

1, A method of feeding weft wire for a wire cloth loom, comprising drawing wire from the inside of a snugly held coil around oppositely disposed barriers arranged within said coil and then around a limited windup device.

2. A method of feeding Weft wire in a wire cloth loom, comprising the drawing of the wire from the inside of a confined open center coilaround annular barriers which are spaced radially and axially from each other and arranged both within the open center of said coil.

3. In a shuttle of the class described, a container, for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near said top element and said bottom element respectively, over both of which the wire from a coil of wire, when within said container, is adapted to extend.

4. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom elementand peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near said top element and said bottom element respectively, there being a central opening in said container in communication with the inner barrier and a coil of wire in said container threaded from its center around said barriers and out through the said opening to the exterior of the container.

5. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near the top and bottom elements respectively, the inner barrier having a senter bore along the axis of the container through which wire from a coil of wire, when within said container, extends after extending over said inner barrier.

6. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near the top and bottom elements respectively, the inner barrier having a center bore along theaXis of the container, and an open center coil of Wire in said container threaded from its center around said outer and inner barriers respectively, and out through the inner barrier to the exterior of the container, both of said barriers being arranged within the open center of said coil.

7. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls,

said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near the top and bottom elements respectively, and a wind-up device carried by said container, said wind-up device having a centralbore, an annular barrier portion and a peripheral groove which is notched to receive a wire extending from the annular barrier portion thereof.

8. In a shuttle of the; class'described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near the top and bottom elements respectively, and a coil of wire in said container threaded from its center'around said barriers and out through the inner barrier to the exterior of the container, and a windup device carried by said container to receive the wire emerging therefrom, said inner barrier and'said wind-up device being connected together and arranged for limited rotary movement relative to saidcontainer.

9. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a botom element and peripheral walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially and arranged near the top and bottom respectively, and a sheave journaled in said container at the bottom thereof having a bored spindle projecting upwardly into the container.

10. In a shuttle of the class described, a container for a wire coil having a top element, a bottom element and peripheral walls,'said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced radially. and arranged near the top and bottom respectively, a sheave journaled in said container at the bottom thereof having a bored spindle projecting upwardly into the container, and a coil of wire in said container threaded from its center around said barriers andthrough said spindle and on said sheave.

11. A shuttle comprising a container, a coil of wire therein, a grooved sheave gournaled therein and resiliently. constrained to rotate in one direction to a predetermined position, said sheave having a central bore and a notch communicating with the groove therein, annular radially spaced barriers over which wire may pass from said container iirough said bore, through said notch and into said groove, and pulleys vover which the wire may pass in either direction 'with respect to said container and to a loom.

'12. A shuttle comprising a container, a

'coil of wire therein, a grooved sheave journaled therein and resillently. constramed to rotate in one direction to a predetermined position, said sheave having a central bore and a notch communicating with the groove therein, and annular radially spaced barri ers over which wire may pass from said container, through said bore, through said notch and into said groove. 13.,A method of feeding weft wire in a I wire cloth loom comprising drawing the within the around radially spaced annular barriers,

both of which are located within said coil.

16. A method of feeding weft wire in a wire cloth loom comprising drawing the wire from the inside of aconfined coil around annular tubular barriers having a common axis, the barriers being spaced both radially and lengthwise of said axis. V

17. A method of feeding-weft wire in a wire cloth loom comprising drawing the wire from the .inside of a. confined coil around annular tubular telescopically I arranged barriers. I

18. A method of feeding weft wire in a wire cloth loom comprising the drawing of the wire from the inside of a confined coil around axially spaced annular barriers havin g. a common axis with the wire between said bar 'iers extending substantially parallel with said axis.

19. A method of feeding weft wire in a wire cloth loom comprising the drawing of the wire from the inside of a confined coil around radially spaced annular barriers which have, with said coil of wire, a common axis.

20. A method of feeding weft wire in a wire cloth loom comprising the drawing of he wire from the inside of a confined coil around telescopically arranged barriers havsaid coil.

21. A shuttle structure comprising a con tamer havin an open center coil of wire, a

pair of annular barriers therein and axially spaced from each other, said barriers having a common axis and a discharge bore commument, a. bottom element and peripheral.

walls, said container having in its central portion annular barriers spaced axially, over both of whichthe wirefrom a coil of wire container is adapted to extend. HERBERT L. THOMPSON.

ing a common axis which is also the axis of Y 

